Over many years before and since the establishment of the Green Belt, the NSE have been granted many planning applications and concessions by Chiltern District Council. These have been afforded by the goodwill of the local planning authority and the local community has by and large supported them. This has enabled the NSE, unlike other members of the community, to add or extend many buildings in the Green Belt. Foremost among these was a new building for the NSE's first MRI scanner - where the NSE said the 'special microclimate' of their site was beneficial for their care residents!

Several members of the current (May 2005) NSE board of governors have links to property developers and these appointments appear to coincide with the confrontation with the planning authority. Prior to this the NSE has only had one planning application rejected throughout its long history (for an external Doctors Surgery).

Recently the NSE has been found in breach of planning regulations for building an open splay road junction onto Chesham Lane, the so-called "Road to Nowhere".

In 2004 the NSE put in a planning application for a sub-station, which was turned down by CDC on Green Belt and safety grounds.

The main NSE application going to Public Inquiry has not been without its interesting moments, not least of which is the recent (May 2005) late amendments to include many 3-storey buildings, roundabouts and out-of-character traffic calming.

This proposed redevelopment has provoked massive local opposition. The NSE's cynical attitude has, in less than two short years squandered enormous local goodwill built up over many years.